Should You Call Out Sick or Show Up to Clean?

Should you call out sick? Nobody wants a sick house cleaner reverse speed cleaning through their house. And you don’t have to be a clean guru to know when a maid should call out sick.

If the housekeeper is sick he/she will transfer germs and then everybody gets ill.

Angela Brown in her maid service training gives tips to call out sick when you’re contagious. Sick housekeeper = sick household. Ask a House Cleaner about rules and regulations and a savvy cleaner will avoid a sick house and stay away if they are a sick maid.

Today’s sponsors are My Cleaning Connection (a resource hub for all things cleaning.) HouseCleaning360.com where house cleaners can list their businesses and get more customers. And Savvy Cleaner Training for house cleaners and maids.

Listen: Should You Call Out Sick or Show Up to Clean?

Watch: Should You Call Out Sick or Show Up to Clean?

Hi there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is the show where you get to ask a house cleaning question. I get to help you find an answer.

Should You Call Out Sick or Show Up to Clean?

This question comes from a house cleaner who is sick, and she wants to know; “Should I call out sick and cancel on my client? Or should I go ahead and just try to work through being sick at their house?” She says, “My boss is counting on me, and she expects that I’m going to show up to work the houses that we have today. If I don’t, it’s going to put my team partner in a bind. Because she won’t be able to clean the house’s all by herself. What am I supposed to do?”

Today’s Answer – Should You Call Out Sick?

Okay, that is a fair question, and here’s what it comes down to. When you’re sick, you transmit germs to the people whose house it is you’re cleaning.

I know the intent is that you’re there to clean the house, but when you’re sick, you transfer germs to that house.
So it’s possible, that a perfectly well family could get sick because you came to their house to clean. Right?
So that’s super crazy. Now on day one, when you do your initial walk-through with a customer you need to explain,“If you’re sick, I need you guys to cancel on me.” And be really emphatic about it. Because here’s the problem, if you go to a customer’s house and they are sick, you’re probably going to get sick too.

You Will Get Sick

Okay? You are meandering through the house. You’re cleaning things, and you’re moving around, you’re touching everything. And even though you have gloves on, and you might even have a face mask on, you’re still going to pick up some of those germs. Either through your eyes, or breathing, or in your ears, or scratching your face, or whatever it is. You’re going to transfer those germs, and you might get sick.

If you get sick, this is not you just missing one customer’s house. This is you missing all of the customer’s houses while you’re sick.
This could throw you out for an entire week. Now the problem is this: a lot of the house cleaning accounts that you will have, are on a biweekly basis. Meaning you do this set of customers this week, and you clean that set of customers next week.

Sick Scheduling Bungles Everything

If you miss an entire week worth of customers, you can’t bump them into next week. Because you already have all of those time slots filled. And so, without hiring more house cleaners to help you, you don’t have anywhere to move all of those people. So what happens is, instead of cleaning their house every two weeks apart, now it’s three before you’re back on schedule.

You’ll have to wait, they’ve got to wait until their turn comes back around again. Does that make sense? So then what happens is, the house is like super dirty when you come back.

And it’s not just one set of customers. It’s all of the customers that you missed that week.

So instead of working maybe an 8-hour day, you’re going to end up working like 10 or 12 hour days. Every day of that week to catch up.

You Can’t Get Sick or Call Out Sick

I can’t speak enough for the fact that as a house cleaner, number one, you cannot get sick. You cannot get sick it is not an option.

Yeah, it inconveniences your customers and your clients. It inconveniences your boss and guess what?
It inconveniences you. Because in house cleaning, you don’t get paid for the time that you don’t work.
So if you’re out of work for an entire week, that’s an entire week’s worth of money that you don’t have coming in.

Nobody in this business pays you for staying at home and being sick.

If You’re the Business Owner – There is No Sick Pay

Customers and clients don’t write you checks and go; “Oh yeah you’re sick. Here’s the money.” They don’t do that. They pay you for a service rendered.

So, what we have to take care of is you.

As a person, you are your biggest asset in this business. And so you have to take extra care that you don’t get sick.

So for me, I tell my customers; “I cannot get sick. It is not an option for my business. So if you are sick, you must call me and cancel.”

Some people charge a cancellation fee; some people don’t. I don’t because if somebody is sick, I don’t want to penalize them for being sick. If I get sick, I’m going to have to call and cancel on them. And I don’t want them to expect me to give them some kind of remuneration for that either. Does that make sense?

Apple Cider Vinegar a Day Keeps The Doctors Away

So if you get sick, everything crumbles.
So for me, and this is just going to great extremes, for me personally, I drink apple cider vinegar every single day.
And I mix it with lemon juice, so I take a water bottle. I drink about 4 oz. off the top of it. And then I fill about 2 oz. with apple cider vinegar. I fill the rest of it (2 oz.) with lemon juice. And I just shake it up, and it is the nastiest drink that you could ever possibly imagine.

You would think that after drinking it for years that you would build some kind of immunity to it, that you can get used to it, that you will grow accustomed to the taste. I don’t. It’s the nastiest drink I’ve ever had.

But it purifies my system. It clears my sinuses, and it keeps me from catching a cold. Now I have not called in sick and 14 years.
So there’s something to be said for that. Now I also send it with my husband to work in his lunch. I know you’re going think that’s so nasty to do that to my husband, but you know, he hasn’t called in sick once in 21 years.

There Reasons for the Rules

So there’s something to be said for it. It works, I’m telling you it works. It’s an awful drink, but if you are a house cleaner, and you get sick, your business falls apart. So trust me there are there are things to be said about taking care of yourself.

Create an open communication with your clients up front, that if they get sick, they do cancel on you. So for today, if you’re home sick today, stay home. Stay home and get better. Because if you drag this on, it’s going to go on for a week, two weeks, three weeks, and you’re just going to be drained, and the flu, and you’re not going to feel well, and then you give it to your clients. And then they give it back to you. And it’s just this a never-ending story.

So if you’re sick, stay at home and get well.
If you are well, do not go into a house where there sickness.

If you show up, and people are like “Well, I’ve got my kids in the other room and they’re sick so…”

“No, I’m going to leave. I’m not staying if you’re sick. That’s a rule from day one. Those are my rules. I’d rather not have your money for one house, then lose all the money for all the houses for the entire week.”

Disclosure

During the shows we recommend services, sites, and products to help you improve your cleaning and grow your cleaning business. We have partnerships with these companies to provide you with discounts, and savings. By clicking on and buying from the links in the show notes, it doesn’t cost you any more than if you purchased it without the links, and we may receive a commission which helps pay for the production costs of the show.

Support the show so we can continue to bring you free tips to improve your cleaning and help you grow your cleaning business. THANK YOU!

About the Show

Learn how the show came to be, interesting facts about the show host, and other frequently asked questions about the show.